York’s magnificent Georgian Mansion House starts a new chapter in its history today when it stages its first wedding. STEPHEN Lewis reports.

FOR almost 300 years, the Mansion House has been the ceremonial heart of York. Successive Lord Mayors have lived and entertained here. The magnificent Palladian home, completed in 1734, has played host to royalty, bishops, dignitaries and politicians from around the world.

At 3pm today, however, the house begins a new chapter in its history, when it hosts its first wedding.

And what a wedding. Bride Antonia Keung, 31, a research fellow at the University of York, hails originally from Hong Kong. Her groom, Kris Milkowski, 34, who works at the Centre For Low Carbon Futures, also based at the university, is from Warsaw, in Poland. And they’re getting married in the home of York’s first citizen.

So today’s wedding will be a marriage of three different bridal traditions – Chinese, Polish and English.

When she walks down the aisle in the magnificent state room at 3pm, Antonia will be wearing a traditional wedding gown of white satin – but one with a beautiful red train and a bodice embroidered in red.

Red is revered in China as a symbol of good luck, she explained, talking exclusively to The Press.

“It signifies love, joy and prosperity.”

This will be her second dress of the day. Earlier, when she and Kris take part in a traditional Chinese ceremony with her parents at a local hotel, she is to wear a red two-piece outfit in the Chinese style, brocaded in gold and silver with dragon and phoenix designs.

Kris, as the bridegroom, was asked to undergo a series of tasks to prove himself – simple things such as doing a series of press-ups with his best man, or singing a song.

“It’s not so easy to catch me!” Antonia joked.

Bride and groom were also to kneel in front of the bride’s parents for a traditional tea ceremony and blessing.

It was only after this that they were to come to the Mansion House to meet Kris’s parents in the yellow room. There will, at some point today, probably also have been a traditional Polish breaking of the glasses to symbolise good luck, before this afternoon’s wedding vows in the State Room. Antonia admitted they had searched long and hard to find the ideal wedding venue. “I’m not a Christian, so I didn’t want a church wedding,” she said. “I wanted a nice venue, but one that was not religious.”

They checked out a number of possible locations, including a local stately home, before Kris found out that the Mansion House was now licensed for weddings; it can accommodate up to 60 guests.

He arranged for himself and Antonia to visit.

“And as soon as I walked in, while I was still in the hall, I thought: ‘Wow! I really love this place’,” Antonia said. “It just felt really great.”

A GREAT deal of thought went into choosing today’s date, June 21, for the wedding.

Chinese people don’t just pick a date because it is convenient, Antonia explained: it has to be an auspicious day as well. A Feng Shui practitioner chose June 21 and December 13 as good days, based on studies of Antonia and Kris’s family, their dates of birth, and so on.

The couple chose June 21, the longest day of the year – and also the eighth anniversary of them first getting together, when they were students at the university.

It was only once they had agreed on the date that they learned that June 21, 1960, was the day when the neighbouring Guildhall was officially reopened by the Queen Mother after being damaged by a Luftwaffe bombing raid during the war.

After a wedding dinner at the Mansion House this evening, they are having a reception in the Guildhall – so June 21 could hardly be more auspicious.

They had no idea when they booked the Mansion House, however, that they would be the first couple ever to exchange their vows here. They were thrilled when they found out. “It was really nice to know that we would be the first!” Kris said. “A buzz!” Antonia added.

Lord Mayor David Horton – whose home the Mansion House is, at least for this year – isn’t a guest at today’s wedding. “But if I do happen to see them around I’ll say ‘welcome to my house!’,” he said.

• To find out about booking the Mansion House for a wedding or other event, phone 01904 551027 or email mansionhouse@york.gov.uk

A Georgian delight

• The Mansion House was built between 1725 and 1734 to designs selected by a group of York aldermen from a famous book of the day, Gibbs’ Book of Architecture.

• It was designed to enable the Lord Mayors of York to entertain distinguished guests, and host civic ceremonies. The city fathers were determined it would not appear provincial, explained Richard Pollitt, manager of the Mansion House and Guildhall. “They wanted it to be as fashionable as London,” said Richard. It was the first purpose-built Mansion House in the country: London’s wasn’t finished for another quarter of a century.

• The Prince of Wales (later George IV) visited in 1789. He was very fond of turtle soup, so no fewer than three turtles were procured for the occasion. They were very expensive.

“One was even brought under armed guard from East Yorkshire,” revealed Richard.